Teaching Materials

As Fast As Words Could Fly

Book — Fiction. By Pamela M Tuck. Illustrated by Eric Velasquez. 2013. 32 pages.
Based on her father’s experience in 1960s North Carolina, Pamela Tuck tells how a family and community challenge racism where they work, shop, and go to school.
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Revolution

Book — Fiction. By Deborah Wiles 2014. 544 pages.
Historical fiction for young adults set in Greenwood, Mississippi during the 1964 Freedom Summer.
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The Return of Gabriel

Book — Fiction. By John Armistead. 2002. 218 pages.
Confronted with decisions well beyond their years, three friends grapple with eternal issues of shifting loyalties and the nature of heroism
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Dayshaun’s Gift

Book — Historical fiction. By Zetta Elliott. 2015. 88 pages.
Time travelling historical fiction for upper elementary school students on the New York City Draft Riots.
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In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse

Book — Fiction. By Joseph Marshall III. Illustrations by Jim Yellowhawk. 2015. 176 pages.
A contemporary Native American boy learns about the history of Crazy Horse in a journey with his grandfather.
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Chains

Book — Historical fiction. By Laurie Halse Anderson. 2010. 336 pages.
Historical fiction based on the life of an enslaved teenager during the Revolutionary War.
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The Wild Book

Book — Fiction. By Margarita Engle. 2012. 144 pages.
A portrait in verse of a young girl struggling with dyslexia in Cuba at the turn of the 20th century.
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Journey to Jo’burg: A South African Story

Book — Fiction. By Beverley Naidoo, illustrated by Eric Velasquez. 1988. 96 pages.
A brother and sister take their sick sibling to the city of Johannesburg to get their mother at work, and come to understand the struggle for freedom and dignity taking place in South Africa.
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Mama’s Window

Book — Historical fiction. By Lynn Rubright. 2008. 89 pages.
Historical fiction inspired by incidents in the early life of sharecropper Owen Whitfield, the organizer of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union.
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The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano

Book — Historical fiction. By Sonia Manzano. 2012. 224 pages.
A coming-of-age story set in New York's El Barrio in 1969 using actual news accounts of the Young Lords taking control of their destinies.
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Sugar

Book — Fiction. By Jewell Parker Rhodes. 2013. 288 pages.
Historical fiction about Reconstruction-era Louisiana through the eyes of a young girl who bridges the divide between the long-time plantation workers and the Chinese indentured servants.
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Same Sun Here

Book — Fiction. By Silas House and Neela Vaswani. 2013. 304 pages.
Two 12-year old pen pals find commonalities in issues of the environment, immigration, employment, and overall human rights.
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A Wish After Midnight

Book — Fiction. By Zetta Elliott. 2010. 270 pages.
When tough Genna gets transported back in time, she must face the perilous realities of Civil War-era Brooklyn, using all her wits to survive and hold on to her humanity in two different worlds.
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book cover showing sketch of woman's face with a sketch of a butterfly overlapping her.

In the Time of the Butterflies

Book — Fiction. By Julia Alvarez. 2010. 352 pages.
The story of Las Mariposas — “The Butterflies” — is about four sisters and their tragic deaths under Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic.
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Chickadee

Book — Fiction. By Louise Erdrich. 2012. 208 pages.
The fourth book in the series following the Ojibwe girl Omakayas and her family as their lands are invaded by white settlers.
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The Dreamer

Book — Fiction. By Pam Muñoz Ryan. 2010. 384 pages.
An introduction to the life of Pablo Neruda as a child in historical fiction for young adults.
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Tulsa Burning

Book — Fiction. By Anna Myers. 2004. 152 pages.
A young man must wrestle with his past and find the strength to pull free from the poisonous grip of racism.
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Hope For Haiti

Book — Fiction. By Jesse Joshua Watson. 2010. 32 pages.
A boy lives through the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and finds hope amid the hardships of the aftermath.
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